The Hogwarts Express was packed. Harry, Ron and Hermione were all sat together in a compartment, on their way back to Hogwarts for the last time. Voldemort had been vanquished and all students had to repeat the last year. The atmosphere on the train was one of gleeful expectancy but inside this compartment it was a totally different story. Ron and Hermione sat at opposite ends of the compartment with Harry awkwardly perched between them.
Hermione sat next to the window, looking out through her reflection to the countryside speeding past. Ron slouched next to the sliding door watching students running up and down the corridor outside. Harry looked warily from one to the other; grateful that at least the yelling had stopped.
The atmosphere between them had been like this for the last week; ever since the 'incident'. Ron suddenly stood up. 'Fuck this.' Hermione whipped her head around to stare at him and Harry looked helplessly between the pair of them.
'Oh, what, Ron? Silence getting to you?' Hermione asked sarcastically from where she sat with her knees resting against the wall next to the window. Her posture was relaxed yet the hand on which she rested her forehead was tense.
Ron's face darkened with anger at her insolent glare and his fists bunched at his sides. 'I get you're angry but that's no reason to treat me like a leper, Hermione!'
Hermione's face reddened with anger and her hand dropped. 'Angry?! Angry doesn't even begin to cover it, Ronald! I'm fucking furious!' Harry started up from his seat as Ron took an angry step forward, his face as red as his hair.
'I keep telling you it's not my fault, Hermione! Bloody hell, it was only one time!'
Hermione dropped her knees and stood, facing off against him in a compartment which suddenly seemed much too small. 'I don't care if it was one or one hundred times! You slept with her! In our bed! In broad daylight! Shit, Ron; I was only out for half an hour and you invited her round to our house to have sex with you!'
Harry shrank back. Ron turned away from Hermione, his shoulders hunched. 'Fuck this.' Hermione took another step forward.
'That's right, Ron. Run back to Lavender! Give her my love!' Ron slammed open the compartment door and Draco Malfoy stepped into the compartment.
'Well, look who it is. Potty and his gang of misfits and mudbloods.' He looked between them with a sneer on his face. Malfoy's white blonde hair had grown long over the summer. It curled up against the top of his shoulders and the fringe flopped into his left eye. He was the same height as Ron. The two of them faced off in the doorway, Malfoy with his arms folded insolently and Ron with his hands balled into fists at his sides.
Ron pushed past Malfoy. 'Fuck off back to mummy, Malfoy.' He turned into the corridor and stormed away. Hermione sat down again and looked out of the window once again, fury in her face. Harry glanced at Malfoy briefly before he hurried after Ron, calling his name. The door slid closed and silence reigned once again in the compartment.
'What's got the Weasel's thong in a knot, then?' Hermione looked around as this was spoken into the quiet. Her face was blank, her eyes dull.
'Why are you still here, Malfoy? Why don't you just chase after them if you want to pick on someone?'
Malfoy leaned back against the wall next to the door, his arms folded; and sneered down at her. 'Maybe I'd rather pick on you.'
Hermione felt anger worm its way through the blankness that had descended on her since Ron and Harry had left the compartment. Her eyes flashed. 'Shove off, Malfoy.' Her voice was low and dangerous.
Malfoy's smile turned into a fully fledged grin. 'Make me, Mudblood.'
Hermione watched him for a couple of seconds before she stood up and faced him across the compartment. Malfoy's smile faded slightly as he watched her warily for a twitch of her hand for her wand. No such twitch came.
Hermione watched Malfoy's eyes as they flickered between her hand and her pocket. She smiled slow and long, loving how his eyes widened. She was sick and tired of being treated like a good girl. She was one of the most powerful witches in the country yet everyone thought of her only as a bookworm who would rather be sat in library with an ancient tome that out with her friends. Even Harry and Ron didn't think her capable of anything but study. She felt her anger begin burning deep in her stomach, heating her from the inside out. Within her pocket, her hand fisted her wand and the blinds over the windows slid silently down.
Hermione raised her hands to the front of her robes and slowly slipped the ties loose at the neck then allowed it to slide down her arms before flinging it to one side. That morning in a fit of defiance, Hermione had decided to wear the outfit she had bought specifically for Ron. The pleated miniskirt stopped several inches above her knee and the strappy top's neckline plunged in a deep v between her breasts. The stiletto boots came to mid calf and accentuated her lithe frame.
Malfoy's eyes widened and his hands dropped at the same time as his jaw. Hermione snaked her left hand around her midriff to rest on her right hip bone while her right hand trailed up her throat and over her lips. She kept eye contact with Malfoy as her body began to move.
Trailing her hand across the front of her body, she allowed the movement to push the slim fitting shirt up slightly to reveal her flat stomach as far as her navel before moving back down. She slipped two fingers of her right hand into her mouth and began to suck as her left hand repeated the movement before moving upwards.
Her left hand trailed across her ribs then up farther to cup her breast. Breaking eye contact with Malfoy as she tipped her head back, Hermione moaned. Malfoy watched in shock, his face burning as her hand trailed back down her body to rub between her legs through the skirt. Oh dear god.
Hermione's hands roamed across her body as she moaned again. Malfoy felt his erection rising to press against the lining of his trousers. His face was taught with a mixture of arousal and anger as he moved his own hand to the bulge. Hermione turned so that Malfoy could only see her back as her hands continued to move. The strap of her top slipped down her arm.
Malfoy growled as he stepped up to her back, pressing into her as his arms wrapped around her to follow the movements of her hands with his own. Hermione's head fell back on his shoulder. His hands smoothed up her torso and he groaned as they found her breasts. She felt his chin against her shoulder before his teeth found that spot on her neck that Ron had somehow never been able to reach.
Hermione leaned back against him and Malfoy fell back against the door, his arms taking her with him. She arched her spine as she reached behind him to smooth her hands over his back. Malfoy felt the handle of the door pressed into the small of his back before it was replaced by Hermione's soft fingers pushing his shirt up. Hermione leaned back harder against him then suddenly the door was gone from his back.
Malfoy fell backwards into the corridor, landing hard on his back in front of several startled 3rd years. His clothes were dishevelled, his hair in disarray and he was sporting an impressive erection. Half a second of stunned disbelief left him staring at the ceiling before the sound of the compartment door slamming made him leap to his feet. Hermione grinned right into his furious face before she raised her wand on the other side of the window. Malfoy had a brief moment to wonder where the hell she had been keeping that wand before he heard a lock he hadn't thought existed clicking in the door.
Hermione finger waved at him before flicking her wand and allowing the blinds to slide shut again, then she returned back to her seat to spend the rest of the journey listening gleefully to Malfoy's ever more impressive swearwords as he hammered on the compartment door.
Yes, she thought. This would be a good year.